This weekend: The RNLI Arklow Maritime Festival

The RNLI Arklow Maritime Festival is in the perfect location for a maritime festival. Arklow is steeped in maritime heritage. The town is a premier fishing port with Viking beginnings, fine boat building traditions and it has an excellent maritime museum. Arklow is also home to Ireland’s first lifeboat station and this year they are celebrating 190 years of saving lives in the community.

This is one of Ireland’s longest running maritime festivals and this year it will be bigger than ever with a great line of of events for the whole family to make this August bank holiday one to remember.

The event will open Friday evening with the crowning of the Maritime Queen and King. The festival will kick off in full with a whole host of events on all day Saturday and Sunday. The action will be happening down the Quays with live music, food stalls, bouncy castles, reptile zoo, street entertainment and lots more. There will be exhibits by the emergency services and the RNLI roadshow will be on the scene to give out free information and life jacket safety checks.

On the water a number of boats will be visiting including two Viking Longships, the IWDG Celtic Mist, INFOMAR’s Keary, vintage lifeboats and the Brocklebank museum boat.

The festival is a fundraising event for the the amazing RNLI who do such amazing work saving lives at sea so it’s a great chance to get out and support them.